Be Thyself: A Discourse.

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^ giscourse.

WILLIAM DENTON.

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II

BE THYSELF.

% gisfottrae.

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WILLIAM DENTON,

»■•■<

BOSTOSTt
PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM DENTON.

FOR BALB BY WILUAK WHTTB AKD COMPANY,
168 Washihgton Street.

1872.

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BE THYSELF.

We live in a universe abounding with variety.
The heavens present us with systems, suns, stavs,
planets, comets, meteors, smd clouds. Systems differ
from systems in shape, 'suns from suns in size. " One
star diflfereth from another star in glory." One planet
is belted, another girt with rings ; comets and meteors .
are as varied as their numbers. Clouds are never
twice alike : pile upon pile thej^ lie, with rosy-topped
mountain-peaks; skip like silvery sheep across the
blue meadow of the sky, or lie like golden islands in
a silver sea.

The earth is not less varied than the heavens.
IJere the mountains lift up their hoary heads in
t^ilent majesty, white with the snows of a thousand
winters; and there lie the dusky valleys, ten thou-
sand feet below them, where twilight holds continual
Jioliday. The boundless plain stretches before us,
a wide expanse without a hillock, an ocean of drift-
ing sand unblessed by a green blade, or a grassy
prairie in its virgin green, or clad in flowery beauty ;
the placid lake, the leaping rill, the dark canon, the
river, rolling forever on, and the ocean girt by low
Band-banks or frowning precipices, calm as a frozen

4 BE THTI^ELF.

lake, or, waked to wrath by furious storms, howling U
the moaning of the winds.

Nor are the organic productions of the earth less
varied, — from the cedar that rears its symmetrical
head three hundred feet above its roots, to the velvet
moss that carpets the ground at its feet. The lichen
clings to the boulder, the algoB to the wave-washed
rock; the pine's leaves are spines, while a leaf of the
talipot palm will cover a company of soldiers. The
condor scales with'unwearied wing the heights of the
Andes; the katydid chirps in the meadow its evening
hymn ; the whale floats, an island in the ocean ; the
animalcule explores a drop.

What diversity 1 No two planets, no two animals,
no two things, alike. Not only does the oak differ
from the pine, and tlie pine from the cedar, but no
man ever saw two oak-trees alike, noriany two leaves
upon an oak. There are no two grains of sand alike:
to microscopic eyes they would be as diverse as boul-
ders. To a stranger the sheep in a flock seem all
alike ; to the shepherd they are as different as the in-
dividuals comprising it, and he can call them all by
name. Nature never casts two articles out of the
same mold: when one is cast, she cracks the mold,
and makes a new one for the next, and thus secured
endless variety.

Man is no exception to this rule. Look at the vari-
ety of races, — the blushing Caucasian, the oblique-
eyed Mongolian, the dark-skinned African, the black-
haired, beardless American, the dumpy Esquimaux,
and the spindle-shanked Australian. Heads differ,
eyes differ, fingers differ, all parts differ, in every
man from every other man, the world over. That

BE THYSELF. ^

passing from us which is invisible to all differs from
the invisible aura of others, or how could the dog
track his master through the crowded street? There
are said to be from three to four thousand languages
on the globe, from the harsh and guttural Esquimaux
to the smooth and liquid Italian. Every individual
has, in fact, peculiarities of speech that distinguish
him from all* others. The voice reveals the person
when we have no other clue ; and we say that is
John, Mar}^, or Thomas, when the persons speaking
are unseen.

This variety that we thus notice in Nature is a
continual blessing. Suppose it otherwise. Let all
the heavenly bodies be alike in size and brightness,
and placed at equal distances, and we should have a
celestial checker-board, true to the line, and pretty for
one look, but tame forever. Make all the flowers
roses, and who would not miss the violet ? The rose
itself would lose half its beauty for want of contrast
with its less fair floral sisters. If all leaves were
alike, and all trees after the same pattern, how the
dull landscape would fatigue the eye 1 Make all men
like pins in a paper, mold candles in a box, or shot
in a barrel, the fat thin, or the thin stout ; elongate
the short, or stunt the long; give all eyes the same
expression ; make all noses aquiline or Roman, — and
what a desert of faces would surround us I Let it
occur to-day, what terrible mistakes would take place
before morning! There is not an ugly sinner but
would pray for the return of his old face to rescue
him from the dead level of humanity.

Minds differ more widely than faces. '^ Many meOi
many minds/' is a proverb to true aa it is old. More

6 BE THYSELF.

varied than flowers in the garden^ leaves in the
forest, or stars in the sky, are the minds of
mankind. Look into our libraries and see the
products of those minds, — books on every conceiv-
able subject, and no two alike even on the same
subject.

This difference is seen in boys as soon as the iutel*
lect is awake, and manifests itself continually. Here
is a little mechanic saving his cents and buying a
jack-knife, with which he whittles mimic water-
wheels. See him in the brook, his little pants tucked
up to his brown knees, while he rejoices, as his wheel
spins round, like an angel over a new world. Give
him a chance to develop in his own peculiar line, and,
like a Watt or a Fulton, he will yoke new steeds to
the car of progress, and drive on the world at a
diviner speed.

Another little fellow is drawing horses on the barn-
door with chalk, or making little dogs out of dough
in the kitchen. An artist is he in the germ; full
blossomed and fruited, the business of his thinking
soul and obedient hand shall be to embody the
creations of his genius, that shall bless the world
for long centuries after he has gone to more than
realize his most glorious conceptions in a higher
school of art.

' Here is a born orator; mounted on a stump, he
harangues the village boys. Proud ships may sail,
they attract him not; wheels may spin, what cares
he? Could he enchain an audience by his eloquence,
earth has no greater blessing, heaven itself could
grant no more. To this he devotes himself; his soul
leads, he obediently follows, till multitudes hang

BE THYSELF. 7

breailileBs upon his words^ while he talks as a spniig
leaps from the mountain-side.

This farmer cares more for his cattle than a mon-
arch for his. crown. Spring has driven winter from
the land, the birds are singing, and he rejoices as he
drives his "jocund team a-field.^ Nothing could in-
duce him to leave these incense-breathing fields for
the din and dust of the city ; but the merchant de-
spises the dull round of the farmer, and is never
happy but in the crowded mart, — a busy man among
busy men.

It is well that it should be so. Were all to become
merchants, the stock would soon be spent; the river
of commerce would dry up, for the rills of produc-
tion would cease to flow. Were all producers, goods
would accumulate as water does in lakes, and there
would be no rivers to distribute the surplus to the
needy lands. If all were poets, painters, or orators,
bread and butter would be sadly deficient ; and if all
were plain, prosy farmers, how much that makes life
joyous we should lose!

As men's intellectual endowments differ, so do
their moral faculties and religious sentiments. One
is a born sceptic; he must see, hear, feel, and is
hardly satisfied without tasting and smelling, what is
marvellous, in order to give it credence. He may de.
sire to believe ; but the arms of his faith are so short
that they can not reach the distant object. Another
believes at once : it is only necessary to present the
statement, and he swallows it in a moment, though
"gross as a mountain." He reads that the whale
swallowed Jonah, and be lived three days in his
belly; if he had read that Jonah swallowed the

8 BE THTBELF.

whalo, he would swallow both, and make no bcnes
about either. He has no need to pray, —

" Stretch our faith's capacity wider and yet wider still.'

The door of his soul is wide enough to take in all
company; no more to be reasonably praised for the
width of his spiritual gullet, than the sceptic blamed
for the narrowness of his.

One is firm as a mountain : he feels like Fitz James
when he exclaimed, —

^ Come one, come all 1 This rock shall fly
From its firm base as soon as L'*

>

Another is pliant as the wheat-stalk, that waves in
the June breeze.

This man is spiritual ; every breath that he draws
is redolent of heaven ; he mounts as* naturally as the
freed bird, and carols in the sky; that man gravitates
to the earth like a thunder-cloud big with a shower.

The arms of the benevolent would all mankind em-
brace. If he were made of gold, his sympathy would
lead him to give himself away for the benefit of man
kind. Some such give away all that they have, and
more than they have; while the economical man's
purse-strings are twined around his heart, sometimes,
with a hard-to-be-loosed knot in them, and he thinks
ten times before he gives once.

If all were credulous as some, the world would
feed on lies, and dire would be the consequence. If
all were sceptical as others, new truths and strange
&ct? might stand knocking at the world's heart for

BE THYSELF. 9

centuries before they gained admission. If all were
firm and unyielding, progress would either be im-
possible or very slow ; and, if all were equally pliant,
revolutions would be as plentiful as showers in spring,
and peace and stability would be at an end. If all
were spiritual as Swedenborg in his later days, corn
and potatoes would be sadly deficient; and if all were
" of the earth, earthy," we should be no better than
the -savage in the wild.

There may be too wide deviations from a normal
standard morally, as there are intellectually; for some
are born morally asquint, as others are physically, —
deviations that require careful culture and training to
overcome. But men as naturally difier in their moral
natures as they do in their physical constitutions, and
the difference thus existing is of the greatest value
to the race. One's religion is like the sun, fervid and
intense ; another's like the moon, calm and beautiful ;
and another's like the stars, bright and saint-like; yet
all lovely as the varied flowers of the meadow, or the
tints of the evening sky. .

Hence the importance of the exhortation of my
text, — Be Thyself. There is no originality, no
complete manhood, without it. It is the highest pre-
rogatiye of the animal kingdom, the crowning glory
of humanity. Among the coral polyps, at the base
of the animal kingdom, we have millions of animals
united in one community; what is eaten by one is as if
eaten by all ; and the will of the individual is lost in
that of the group, harmoniously forming their stony
structures at the sea^bottom. Among the moliusks,
countless multitudes lie in one oozy bed, with little
Bcope, as there is little inclinatiouifor ]ndiv.idaal

10 BE THYSELF.

action. Among the fishes there is more scope ; but,
living in shoals, the will of one is lost in that of
the many. Among the birds a few leaders control the
flock. Beasts possess more independence ; but the
strongest horse leads the band as it sweeps over
tlie prairie, and the old male buffalo decides the
course of the entire herd. Ascending to man, there
is more individuality, and the most among the most
highly developed.

Even the savage is an individual who corner into
direct communication with Nature for himself. His
parents say, "Shift for yourself," and Nature says the
same. He learns where the fish hide, and he spears
them; he watches the beaver, and' traps it, that he
may clothe himself with its akia. He knows the
ridge on which the chestnut grows; and, when the
leaves fall, he makes for the winter a secret hoard.
He builds his own tent, supplies his fire, communes
with Nature, and forms ideas of the world in which
he finds himself. But ho must be obedient to his
chief, even to death; and his individuality is sacri-
ficed continually. But here is the philosopher in
whom humanity blossoms, and brings forth fruit. In
him we see the highest exemplification of self-hood.
In him Nature's great endeavor is fulfilled, her* work
of the ages is completed. Reason sits on the throne ;
and the lawless propensities are subject to her sway.
He reads, hears, investigates; and what his judgment
docides upon, that he does^ and hears the contina^I
plaudit of a good conscience, saying, " Well done I ''

The benefits that flow from the exercise of this
Belf-hood are inconiqeivablew Among men who prac-
tice it are Emersoni tlie most original mind on this

^^

BE THTSELF. 11

continent, and whose private life is pure as his intel
lect is clear ; Garrison, whose manliness no force
could bend, and whose love for the bondman was
only equaled by a fearless denunciation of his op-
pressors ; in science, Lyell> Darwin, Huxley, Spen-
cer, Draper, independent free-thinkets, who are de-
livering the world from ignorance, enlarging the
domain of thouglit, and breaking the bonds of priestly
bigptry and intolerance. On the other side are the
tools of Popish superstition, who dare- hardly call
their souls their own ; with whom • the word of a
priest is potent as a law of God; who kneel, and swal-
low the God baked but yesterday by the cook, and
dare not open their shutters to let in one ray of
heaven's pure light ; the slaves of Episcopal domina-
tion, whose priests swear never to be wiser than the
Thirty-nine Articles, and who must perjure themselves,
if they ever step beyond the narrow, creed-made pale
that the first step of an infant mind would almost
overstride ; and, along with these, the millions of
abject ecclesiastical subjects, whose spiritual bond
age ia their pride, and who tremble when they hear a
free thought, lest the heavens fall, or the earth gape,
and swallow both speaker and hearers.

The world's heroes in poetry, philosophy, mechan-
ics, and reform, have been heroic by virtue of their
selfhood. Leave this out of the composition of a
man, and you have, in poetry, a verse-wright who
never dared to write an original line ; in philosophy,
a peddler of defunct ideas ; and in war, a poltroon.
What made Homer the prince of song, and enabled
the old " blind man of Ohio " to chant a strain which
the hills of Greece echoed for centoriesi still heard

12 BB THYSELF.

across the wild ocean, and amid the din and roar of
this nineteenth century ? He wrote in his own inimi-
table style the beautiful thoughts that crowded into
his brain : from the heaven of his own creation, he
poured down those melodies which a busy world on
tiptoe stands to hear.

Who was Shakspeare's model? Whence did he
draw the supplies of which millions have drunk and
been refreshed ? With no broken pitcher did he go
to another's well, but drew from the exhaustless foun-
tain of his own soul. He stands to-day like a granite
mountain, whose head is lost in the clouds, and whose
culminating point no traveler has reached: as men
ascend, untrodden bights lie still above them. Had
he been a mere imitator, the molehill of his produc-
tion would have been long since trodden to the dead
•level of the plain.

How did Bunyan write his "Pilgrim's Progress"?
As the brook babbles, taking no counsel of other
brooks, but telling its own story in its own way; and,
in spite of its many absurdities, the tinker's book will
live for centuries. Copernicus and Galileo, taking
counsel of their own souls, heeding not the monkish
&ble-mongers who believed the world to be flat as
a table, and the stars little shining points, boldly
marched into the untrodden realm, explored its seas
of worlds, and came back laden with glorious truths.

Columbus, advising with no Past, old and decrepit,
who had bounded the world, and inscribed on its
boundary, " No more "beyond," launched his bark to
cross the unknown ocean ; and for weary weeks and
months sailed steadily on, on, — the cloudy sky above,
ibe inky sea around, — spite of the frowns, tears, and

BE THYSELF. 1.^

entreaties of the cowards who accompanied him, till
a new world, like a radiant maiden, leaped into his
arms, and blessed him for his manliness. We are here
to-day because Columbus dared to be himself.

It was this self-hood that made Raphael the prince
of painters, and Napoleon of warriors. *' He does not
fight according to the rule," said the European fogies.
No ; but he had a rule of his own to fight by, and thus
he conquered. In Watts, it gave us the steam-engine,
with its hundred hands and its restless soul ; and in
Pulton, the boat that heeds not wind or tide, whose
steam-arm paddles day and night, and never tires.
By it, Socrates climbed the bights of philosophy,
from which it was but a step to the heaven into
which he entered.

i'Mere imitators in ai-t never scale the bights ; but,
placing their feet in the prints left by former travel-
ers, they tire themselves out with a step that is un-
natural to them, and faint and die by the way, leaving
no sign behind that they have ever been. In life's
battle, they never make heroes, Itat wearing another
man's armor which never fits them, and wielding a
weapon never made for them, they accomplish little,
and fall an easy prey to the enemy. J

Of the hundreds who have imitated Shakspeare,
how many live in remembrance? They have gone
like the smoke of the Indian wigwam from our land,
while he shines on like a star. Books written by
these imitators are mere repositories of twaddle,
mountains of chaff, great in bulk, but small in nutri-
ment for the hungry soul. A bonfire of them would
give more light to. the world than they can give in
any other way. Most of our theological works are

14 BE THYSELF.

of this class, — embalmed hosts of dead men's foolish
thoughts* a library of them is a catacomb or a mum-
my pit J how useless to look for light or life in them I
Men throw overboard their own thoughts, richer than
pearls, and load their barks with cast-off, water-worn
shells of conservatism.

Books written by. thinkers — men who thought and
dared to express their thoughts — are always worth
reading. I care not whether their authors wore
Atheists or Methodists, Heathen or Mohammedan; the
life's blood of the author circulates through them,
and in reading you feel its pulsations. But books
written by men who never saw through their own
eyes, who never put out their hands, and felt the
world for themselves, nor took one manly step, are
the faintest echoes from the distant hills, compared
with the heaven-shaking thunder that produced
them.

Self-hood is as necessary in religion as in art, sci-
ence, and literature. The world has been cursed for
centuries by men who have sought to shape the reli-
gious element in all after the same model. Placing
the soul of man in the crucible of sect, it has been
melted down, and poured into some creed-made mould:
its beauty marred, its original proportions destroyed,
it stands a monument of man's folly, a warning to all,
and speaks in loudest tones the language of my text,
Brotlier, sister, be thyself!

All great religious reformers have acted more or
less on this principle. The more fully they have
carried it out, all other things being equal, the wider
has been their sphere of influence, and the more
good they have accomplished. What enabled Moses

BB THYSELF. IS

to rise above the multitude, like a mountain in the
midst of a vast plain, so high, that, at the distance of
thiily-fivo hundred years, he stands oiit still in bold
relief against the horizon? What magic was there in
his name, that Oblivion swallowed it not with the mil-
lions that have disappeared in his never-to-be-satisfied
maw ? Snapping the fetters with which the priests
of Egypt sought to bind his soul, he listened to the
promptings of his heart as it taught him a better reli-
gion than he had ever before heard ; and he hesitated
not to obey its requirements. Leaving behind him
the enchantments of Egypt, and the pleasure of Pha-
raoh's court, he became a wanderer in the desert, —
an excellent place for a man to commune with him-
self. Thence he came, and stamped his soul upon the
Jewish nation.

He dared to think for himself on religious matters,
to face the great universe' and question it; and with a
rare originality he taught his countrymen a religion —
the answer, as he believed, to his questions — far in
advance of its predecessors. But every Jew had just
as much right to question for himself and cherish the
answer as he ; but this Moses would by no means al-
low : the answer to him must be the answer for all.
Hear himl "If thou wilt obey the statutes and com-
mandments that I command thee this day, then blessed
shalt thou be in the city and in the field ; blessed in
thy going-out, and blessed in thy coming-in ; blessed
in thy basket and in thy store. But, if thou wilt not
obey them, cursed shalt thou be in the city and in the
field ; cursed in thy going-out and coming-in, in thy
basket and in thy store." Liberty, spontaneity, self
hood, all must be sacrificed to rigid conformity. The

16 BB THYSELF.

Jew must b& a Mosean, or destruction awaited hinu
Moses regards the seventh day as holier than all others,
and consecrates it to rest for all generations ; and the
independent Israelite, who gathered sticks upon that
day, is stoned to death. Moses thought an angry God
could be appeased by burning sheep, oxen, and doves ;
and the man who has advanced beyond this, who does
not believe that God can be pleased with the smell of
roasting beasts, must kill and roast his cattle notwith-
standing ; for Moses speaks, and will be obeyed.

You tell me that Moses received his commandments
from God ; yes, from the God that is in you and me,
and in the same way that we receive ours. He talked
with him as we talk with him when we converse with
our brother; and he saw him. as we see him in the
starry sky, or the grassy spear at our feet pointing
heaveuward. Man three thousand years ago was no
nearer to God than we are to day; and the New-Eng-
land thinker can see God on Mount Katahdin as well
as Moses did on Sinai.

Moses thus became the model man for the whole

4

Jewish nation. Every child was taught, that just in
proportion as be became like Moses, was !ie a true
man, and sure of God's blessing ; as far as he fell short
of this, so far had he departed from the right, and was
subject to a curse.

After the death of Moses, he was elevated by priest
and Levite, sabbath after sabbath, and feast after
feast ; his holy law unrolled, and weekly read to the
assembled multitude. Moses was king, the children of
Israel his subjects. Moses was the die, and the Jews
the coin, stamped by the repeated blows of their priests
with his image and superscription. To be like Moses

BE THYSELF. 17

was the highest ambition of the noblest and best;
greater than he could no man be ; to be wiser was im-
possible, and to dream of being better was blasphemous.

Thus crept the nation snail-like through the dull
centuries; an oppressive ritual upon their backs like
a mountain of lead, and Moses before them, a dark
cloud shutting out the blue sky from their wistful gaze.

But Nazareth produced a man who refused to bow
any longer to the God, Moses, that had been set up.
" One man dared to be true to what is in you and me."
In an age of slaves he was free ; in an age of cowards
he was a hero. While the whole nation was crawling
in the dust, Jesus stood upon his feet, and allowed
his manhood to speak. " Ye have heard that it hath
been said by them of old time (that is, by Moses and
the Moseans), An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a
tooth : but I say unto you, Resist not evil ; but who-
soever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to
him the other also." " Again : ye have heard it hath
been said by them of old time. Thou shalt not for-
swear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine
oaths ; but I say unto you. Swear not at all. Let your
communication be. Yea, yea ; Nay, nay : for whatso-
ever is more than these cometh of evil." We find him
saying, in opposition to old Jewdom, "Why judge ye
not of yourselves what is right?" He proclaimed
himself Lord of the sabbath, as every sensible man t«,
and boldly set at defiance all who attempted to fetter
his soul. What a consternation was there among tho
scribes and Pharisees,* the soul-mongers of Judseal
"Have you heard that mechanic of Galilee, who is
traveling about the country preaching heresy ? He
addressed a rabble the other day, when he made hini«

2

18 BBS THYSELF.

self superior to Moses, and set at naught the law given
by God himself on Mount Sinai. I understand that he
has been saying, Why judge ye.not what is right your-
selves? thus making men their own lawgivers, and
taking away the necessity for our services. He is a
bold blasphemer, whose mouth must be stopped ; away
with him, away with him, crucify him, crucify him, he
is not fit to live I " The multitude echo the cry, " Away
with him, crucify him ! " and so they did ; and doubt:
less thought there was an end of his doctrine, and
their craft was forever* safe. Never did men make a
greater mistake. Bury a truth and it is a seed ; it
springs up, grows, and bears fruit a thousand-fold.
Kill a reformer, and his ghost does a hundred times
more than the man could ever have done if alive.
The doctrine of Jesus could not be killed, and his
death seemed to give it life ; it spread far and wide;
mounted the hills, crossed the valleys, was wafted over
the seas ; it mounted the throne of the Caesars, and
conquered the conquerors of the world. Now the de-
spised Nazarene, the young reformer of Galilee, has
become the esteemed Saviour. While he lived, he
was no better than the publicans and sinners with
whom he associated ; he had a devil, and was mad ;
he was a pestilent fellow, whom no Jewish aristocrat
would be seen in company with for the world. But
now he is a good man, a great man, a prophet ; nay, a
greater pi-opbet than Elias himself, then the greatest
and best man that ever lived ; the Son of God, yea, the
only-begotten Son of God ; and lastly, God Almighty
from heaven I Men were not satisfied until they had
uuBcated the Omnipotent, and set the man Jesus upon
hit^^ throne. This is the way the world serves reform*

BE THYSELF. 19

ers ; there is nothing too vile to say about them while
they are alive, and nothing too good when they are
dead, and the world has accepted their doctrine.

Moses was now dethroned, and Jesus made king;
henceforth all must be his obedient subjects. Mosea
was knocked unceremoniously oflf the pedestal, Jesus
placed thereon, and made the model for the whole
human race. " Looking unto Jesus " now becomes
the duty of all. The path of life bears the impres-
sions of his feet, and it is our duty, not to make our
own impressions, but walk implicitly in his ; for " he
has left us an example, that we should tread in his
steps."

Tims have men destroyed one idol and set up anoth-
er; and the business of ouf modern scribes and phari-
sees is to induce people to worship it. In the name
of Jesus the freeman, souls are robbed of their birth-
right, and the most terrible threatenings denounced
against those who, like him, dare to be themselves.
In the nai^e of humanity, I protest against this. Jesus
our helper, our friend, our teacher, but never our
master or tyrant, who holds the lash of future torment
over the trembling captive.

Supposing the Jesus of the New Testament to bo
the veritable God-man, who lived and died that we
might live, his example is not such as it would be well
for mankind generally to follow. Could each man be
a Jesus, it would still be infinitely better to be him-
self. Looking at his character, as drawn by his four
biographers, let us see what would be the consequence
of a universal attempt to imitate the example of Jesus.

He lived to bo above thirty years of age, yet never
was married, never had a wife to call him husbandi

20 BE THYSELF.

nor a child, father. On one occasion he said, "There
are some eunuchs which were so born from their
mother's womb; and there are some eunuchs which
\>ere made eunuchs of men, and there be eunuchs
which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom
of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let
him receive it." Paul, who seems to have regarded
Jesus as a perfect example, never was married, and ho
advised others to imitate him, as he 'did his master.
Suppose men universally were to shape themselves
thus after this model, would not the consequence be
most disastrous? The whole world a Shaker commu-
nity, and in less than a hundred and fifty years a wil-
derness of wild beasts without a human inhabitant.

According to Mark, Jesus worked at the trade of a
carpenter. At the age of thirty he abandoned his
business and went out to preach the Gospel. Walk-
ing by the sea of Galilee he found Simon and Andrew,
James and John, fishing ; he called them, saying, " I
will make you fishers of men ; " they left their fishes
and nets, and followed him. Matthew sat at the re-
ceipt of custom ; Jesus passed by, and said, *' Follow
me; " and, strange to say, although a Jew, he left his
monej'-gathering business, and followed Jesus. When
he had in this way taken twelve men from thftir avo-
cations, and they and a multitude were assembled to-
gether, he preached to them thus : " Take no thought
for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink ;
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not
the life more than meat and the- body than raiment?
Behold the fowls of the air ; for they sow not, neither
do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heaven-
ly Fathor feedeth them. Are ye not much better than

BE THTSELF. 21

they ? Why take ye thought for raiment? Consider
the lilies of the field, how they grow : they toil not,
neither do they spin. Therefore take no thQught
saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or
wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these
things do the Gentiles seek ; for your heavenly father
knoweth that ye have need of all these things. Seek
first the l^ingdom of God, and his righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you. Take, there-
fore, no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself." Again he says,
" Sell that ye have, and give alms." Suppose that men
were to commence imitating Jesus in this respect.
The tailor leaves the shopboard and cloth, the black-
smith the hammer and anvil, the farmer the plow, and
the weaver the loom ; millers cease to grind, and bakers
to bake, and each commences to preach ; and as they
preach, they say, " God has given you life, will he not,
also, give you food to sustain that life? Cease working,
then, and trust in him. He has given you bodies with-
out any efibrt of your own ; will he not much more
clothe those bodies without any labor on your part ?
Look at the sparrows and the pigeons ; they neither
sow nor reap, and yet God feeds them. Consider the
wild roses; see how beautiful they are, and how well
clothed ; the purple robe of a king is not equal to theirs,
and yet they neither spin nor weave. Therefore take
no thought about what you shall eat or wear, but trust
in God, who feeds the sparrows and clothes the grass,
and it will all be well."

The consequences of generally practicing such un-
philosophical doctrine would be starvation and ruin.
It might answer well for Jesus and his disciples to do

22 BE THTSELF.

thus, for others were sowing, reaping, baking, and fish-
ing for them, and supplying their necessities. If it
had not been so, their preaching and practice would
have by no means corresponded ; for they would have
discovered that loaves do not grow on bushes, nor
clothes on trees, and that though birds may be fod
without sowing and reaping, it is otherwise with hu-
man beings. *

On one occasion, Jesus went into the temple, and
found there money changers, and the sellers of oxen,
sheep, and doves; and after he had made a scourge of
cords he drove them out, poured out the changers'
money and overthrew the tables; this, too, after preach-
ing non-resistance to its utmost extent. An imitation
of such conduct would hardly be tolerated, nor would
its influence be beneficial. His denunciation of the
Sctibes and Pharisees is terrible; they were surely
not all bad, all ^serpents " and of the " generation of
vipers," all "fools and blind ; " yet he makes no excep-
tions, but fulminates his woes against them in the most
ofiensive manner. If they were thus bad, how much
would his denunciations do toward reforming them?
And among a large class like this, there must have been
some noble characters.

He told his disciples in the beginning of his minis-
try not to preach his doctrines to the Gentiles, and
states himself that he preached in parables that others
" seeing might not see, and hearing, they might not
understand." When the people ask him very reason
ably for a sign of his Messiahship, he calls them an
" evil and adulterous generation." He makes himself
the head, and teaches that all are to be subordinate to
him. "One is your master, even Christ;" "I. your

BE THYSELF. 23

lord and master." If a city would not receive his dis-
ciples, nor bear their words, as they wandered round
rehearsing the gospel of the Nazarcne, when they do-
parted from it they were to shake off the dust of their
feet as a testimony against it, and he informs them
that it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Go-
morrah in the Day of Judgment than for that city.
He seems to have had some of the feeling that exists
in the little souls of our sectarian bigots. Their sect
is comprised of the chosen few, to whom it is the
Father's good pleasure to give the kingdom. They
are not of the world, and they will have the pleasure
of seeing the destruction of their enemies, those who
would not believe, bow down to, and support their
church. The notions of Jesus with regard to proper-
ty, prayer, and non-resistance, a^ e very far from rea-
sonable ; and though he said and did many excellent
things, taking the narratives concerning him to be
true, still it is evident that he is no model for the race.
And of this the church generally seems to be aware,
though professing continually to practice his precepts
and live his life. Jesus says, *' Lend, hoping for nothing
again ; " but where are the Christians that do it? Do
outsiders demand six per cent, ten per cent, or two
per cent a month, if they find any one whose necessi-
ties compel him to pay such usurious interest, then
Christians do the same; and no difference, in tliis re-
spect, is observable between them. Jesus said, " Re-
sist not evil, and if any man smite thee on the one
cheek, turn the other also;" "Love your enemies."
Christians generally pay no more attention to these
commands than if they had never been uttered; in
fact, every sect has made an artificial Jesus of its own,

24 BE THYSELF.

generally less fanatical and extravagant, and more
fashionablu and better suited to the times. We have
a Quaker Jesus, who wears a broad-brim, and says
" thee," who never enters a " steeple house," and looks
upon music and dancing with horror. The Methodist
Jesus believes in class-meetings where every one tells
his experience ; in pra^'er-meetings where men and
women shout and "scream as if God was. afar off uv
asleep, and has great faith in John Wesley's sermons
and the Methodist discipline. The Episcopal Jesus,
unlike the real one, thinks much of forms and cere-
monies, loves the tones of a solemn organ, and the dim,
religious light that streams through a stained glass
window ; believes in the thirty-nine articles, and thinks
the creed of Athanasius, "which in damning souls is
very spacious," one pf the best compositions outside
of the Bible. The Shaker Jesus believes in " Mother
Ann," regards marriage as a mortal sin, thinks all the
world Sodom, and Shaker communities so many Zoars
to which the righteous Lots have fled from the impend-
ing destruction.

ITiis conduct is probably better than it would be to
follow literally the example of Jesus, for this, we have
seen, would be most disastrous. The obligation of ray
\ext is strengthened, then, by our review of the life of
fesus and the conduct of his so-called Church. Man,
i^oman, be thyself, and thou shalt be as great as Jesu?^,
too, or greater than he.

In obedience to this principle, Luther, singlehanded,
coped with the banded hosts of Popery, shook the
triple-crowned Pope himself, though sitting on -the
throne of ages, made the Roman hierarchy tremble at
the sound of his name, and delivered from priestly

BE THYSELF. 25

tyranny a host of noble souls. Had he been content
to shroud his manhood in the monk's cowl, and keep
down the rising aspirations of his soul, we might still
have been moping about in the dark night of priest-
craft, by the pale light of the stars, nor dreaming of a
dawning day, and he, a poor Popish slave, had crept
long since to the silent grave.

Had he been more faithful to his soul, walked accord-
ing to its dictates without looking to the right or the
left, we might have been much farther advanced to-day.
What a multitude of Lutherans are wearing his cast-
oflF clothes, ragged and thread-bare, fitting no one, in
place of their own natural and beautiful apparel 1

George Pox was a poor shoemaker in Drayton, Lin-
colnshire. Feeling the fire of truth burning in his
bosom, he went out to warm the cold, dead world with
its divine influence; casting down his boots and lasts,
he went forth to preach the Gospel. What Gospel ?
The Gospel of George Pox, and no other. And this
poor shoemaker, with no more than an ordinary amount
of brain and intelligence, shook every steeple in the
land. Bold, fearing nothing when his soul led the
way, pre-eminently self-reliant, and ever turning to
" the light within," we find him entering the old vaults
of gloomy superstition, club in hand, breaking the sec-
tarian images, opening the prison doors, flashing light
into the dark corners, and enforcing by precept and
example the sentiment of my text. When the priesrs
heard that the " man with the leather breeches " was
coming, they left their pulpits and fled ; and George
mounted the deserted pulpits and distributed to the
famished multitude the bread of life. At one time we
find him wading through the bogs of Ireland| at another

96 BE THTSELF.

roaming m the wilds of America. The phlegmatic
Hollander is stirred by the indefatigable Drayton shoe-
maker, nor could the cold prisons of England quench
the fire of his zeal. Had all the Quakers been as
much themselves as George, the promised millennium
had dawned long ere this. This, alasl they never
dreamed of being. George was good, great, and use-
ful ; and they, to be so, must be like him ; the nearer
the resemblance the better. He. wore a broad-brim,
had no collar on his coat, said "thou " and " thee ;*•
and every genuine Quaker does the same to this day ;
and should he depart from the faith, he is soon told
" Thee is not following Friends' rule." When George
went into a church, he kept on his hat, to show that
he had no faith in " holy houses ; " the Quakers, imi-
tating their model man, wear hats in their own meet-
ing-houses, which Ho one regards as holy, and that to
the detriment of their health. Unfortunately George
could not sing, and had a small organ of ideality, so
that he had no taste for pictures, and little or none for
the fine arts generally. Henceforth, every Quaker
must be dumb; music is a sin, and paintings and
sculpture awful waste of time and labor. Friends'
meeting-houses are built like barns, and their worship
is so dead and monotonous that the young gladly escape
from it to something more attractive. The spirit may
move one Friend to sing as much as it does another to
preach ; but all singing spirits are " demons," and
must be exorcised. In short, every Quaker must be
a Fox, whereas to be a man, he must needs be himself.
John Wesley was somewhat manly ; and his obedi-
ence to himself, despite of ecclesiastical laws, made
him a reformer; but when he said to the members of

BE THYSELF. 27

his church, " It is your business to obey our rules,
and not to mend them," he evidently did not intend
others to be as noble as he had been.

If thou wouldst be a man, bend at the shrine of no
mortal; walk in no pathway because others tread it;
be thy cwn leader, thy own sect; when all are so, then
will come the true church. Who was Wesley, that
thou shouldst be a Wesleyan? or Luther, that thou
shouldst be a Lutheran? or Christ that thou shouldst
be a Christian? all men; art thou not equally so?
When the priest threatens thee with damnation, and
would load thee with his gyves to secure thy souPs
salvation, say, ''Hands off, sir! I am, also, a man!
Rather let me be lost, being a free man, than be saved
to be an eternal slave I "

Sects are engines that crush the soul ; priests
direct them 1 Keep out of their power. They are
sand-pits where ignorant or interested men pretend
to dig treasures ; keep from their brink ; once enter,
thou mayest lose the light of day. They are man-
traps set on "holy ground;" beware of them; let
not thy feet wander on their domain.

But, says an objector, some men's sense of right is
very defective, and when they think they are doing
right they are really doing wrong. I most willingly
grant it ; but what then ? Shall we tell the man that
he must do what he thinks is wrong? or shall we tell
him that we are right and he must bow to our author-
ity? This would make the man a slave, and that
could never be right. If a man should be so blinded
as to conscientiously believe right to be wrong and
wrong to be right, I should still say to him, "Do
what you believe to be i ight, but the consequence of

28 BB THTSELF.

your ignorance will fall upon your head/' Whether
men sin ignorantly or willfully, they suffer, and this
suffering tends to make them wiser continually, —
tend? to bring their sense of right side by side with
Nature's actual right.

But, says another, must man discard all models,
cast aside all examples, refuse all guides ? Destruc-
tion would assuredly be his fate. There is no neces*
sity for this ; all models, all examples, all guides are
useful to enable us to form our own. A man's model
must be in his own soul, all others with which he is
conversant assisting in forming it.

Ever there floats before the real
The bright, the beantiful ideal.
And as, to guide the sculptor's hand,
The living forms of beauty stand.
Till from the rough-hewn marble starts
A thing of grace in all its parts,
So ever stand before the soul
A model, beautiful and whole :
The perfect man that we should be.
Erect in stem integrity.
Keep this, oh soul, before thy fflght,
And form the inward man aright. *

Be true to this model to-day, and to-morrow it is
fairer and more beautiful and perfect, always advan-
cing as we advance, and ever before and above us
beckoning us on. All we read, hear, and learn helps
u« in the formation of this true self that must be our
model ; hence we must disdain no advice, even from
a child. We all have much to learn. Moses, Jesus,
and Joseph Smith may teach us something; let us
thankfully receive all they can give. But let no

BE THYSELF, 29

man take us off our feet ; let the oflScious help of
none prevent iis from exercising our faculties and
unfolding ourselves in accordance with our own
law.

Heligious imitators, like all others, fall short of
their original, and copy its defects, rather than its
excellences. The Pliarisees imitated the sectarian
pride, the narrow-souled bigotry of Moses, who could
see no virtue outside of the tents of Israel, rather
than the wisdom that dictated sound laws, and the
meekness that is said to have characterized their
model man. Of the million imitators of Jesus, we
have many that can denounce with his vehemence,
proclaim damnation to all unbelievers, and speak of
outsiders ias " dogs ; " but how few imitate his manli-
ness, his contempt of riches, his active benevolence
and unswerving adherence to right? Of the thou-
sands of Quakers who imitate the little, and in some
cases ridiculous, peculiarities of George Fox, where
will you find the man as bold and sel^reliant as he,
daring to utter his thoughts though they diflFer from
those of every living mortal?

Absurd imitation of the past has characterized the
masses in all ages. The worship of the Greek and
Roman deities continued after all faith in them was
gone. Altars^ smoked and priests officiated in t!ie
temples long after the gods had departed ; for the
dead absurdities of the Past ruled the living Present;
and even the philosophers did not pessess sufficient
self-hood to throw off their allegiance to the defunct
tyrants. In our own time, the foolish dictates of
fashion are scrupulously obeyed by millions who
know no higher law; and multitudes of intelhgent

80 BE THYSELF.

men and women become the mere playthings with
which she sports at her pleasure.

Insfead of one fashion-monger dictating to the
world, how much better would it be if all developed
their natural taste and love of the beautiful, and
dressed accordingly. How much we lose from the
stupid folly of those who allow the taste of one, or it
may be the lack of taste in one, to govern and mold
the whole.

All who take the privilege of being themselves
should be equally willing to give the same privilege,
and not seek to impose their conditions upon others.
The water is very well for a fish to live in, but a poor
place for a bird ; and though grass makes a good din-
ner for a horse, a lion would soon starve on it. The
road I travel may suit me, but what right have T,
when others are unwilling to go the same way, to
knock them down and drag them into it? Every
planet may revolve on his own orbit, so it comes into
collision with no other ; and there is room in the wide
universe even for the eccentric comet.

Many reformers decry and despise those who are
operating in other fields. Their pet reform is the one
upon which the world hangs, or the central sun
around which the universe revolves. All others are
fragmentary, theirs integral. Men advocate one re-
form, read about it, hear every one talk about it
where they lecture, until it assumes a mountain mag-
nitude and shuts out all else from their gaze. The
Temperance Reformer says nothing can be done to
elevate and bless the masses till they are made sober,
for drunkenness is the parent of crime and misery.
Let all become temperate and the day of the Lord is

BE THYSELF. 81

at bapd ; and he is astonished that all reformers do
not lend their aid to the great work until it is accom-
plished. The Antislavery Reformer assures us that
slavery is the curse of curses ; the canker-worm that
is eating out the nation's heart; the sum of all villa-
uies ; a fire burning to the lowest hell. Hence the
Antislavery Reform is the most important; all others
are comprehended in it, and he who does not advo-
cate it is recreant to truth and duty.

The Land Reformer is certain that his reform un-
derlies all others, — the soil must be the foundation.
Let the land be equally divided, or every man have
possession of what he can cultivate, and poverty, and
the vice and misery consequent upon it, will flee, and
the golden age return. Slavery could not exist, in-
temperance would be no more, and the voice of re-
joicing would be heard through all the land.

"This reform all should labor for," says he.
" Hold I " says the advocate of Woman's Rights.
" Men are what their mothers make them, and they
make bad laws because women who mold them are
robbed of their rights, and hold a degrading position
in the world. Give woman her true position, edu-
cate her for her high destiny, and every reform will
follow, as spring the flowers when summer warms
the soil."

All these are useful, all necessaty ; but no one or
two reforms include the whole. Make the world
sober to-morrow, licentiousness, tyrj^ny, war, and
ignorance would still abound; destroy slavery, and
an army of evils would still remain for the reformer
to combat.

" Find thy work and do it," my brother, my sister.

32 BE THTBELF. *

The business of one is to enter the untrodden wild,
axe in hand, and with sturdy strokes bring to the
ground the giant trees ; of another, to grub up the
bushes and pile the brush for burning; the work of a
third, to turn up the virgin soil to the sun's bright
eye, while others follow to scatter broadcast the good
seed, attend the growing crops, and gather in the glo-
rious harvest. All are necessary ; none can say, " I
have no need of thee;" for the final result can only
be obtained by the diversified labor of all.

Heed not the teachers who tell thee to deny and
crucify thyself. Thou art thy own law, thy own
Bible, thy own model. There are no Scriptures so
sacred as those written in thy soul ; read them care-
fully, and obey them faithfully, ever seeking for new
light to scan aright their pages, from the world
nround thee, transcribed in books, or engraven upon
the ever-living page of Nature herself So shalt thou
develop into a noble, sound, whole-souled behig,
happy in thyself, and difiusing happiness, as the rose
it^ fragrance, to all around.

Be thyself; a nobler gospel

NeTcr preached the Nazarene ;
Be thyself; 'tis holy Scripture,

Though no Bible lids between.

. Dare to shape the thought in language
That is lying in thy brain ;
Dare to launch it, banners flying,
On the bosom of the main.

What though pirate knaves surround thee ;

Nail thy coloni to the mast ;
Flinch not, flee not ; boldly sailing,

Thou shalt gain the port at last.

BE THTSELP, 88

Be no parrot, idly prating

Thoughts the spirit never knew;
Be a prophet of the Grod-sent,

Telling all thy message true.

True, the coward world will scorn thee.
Friends may fail, and fiends will frown ;

'Heaven itself grow dark above thee,
Gods in anger thence look down.

Heed not ; there's a world more potent

Carried in thy manly heart;
Be th3rself, and do thy duty;

It will always take thy part

If the God within say, " Well done I "

What are other gods to thee ?
Hell's his fro>D?n ; but where his smile ii^

lliere is heaven fiir the free.